Perfect attendance is not required. But being at Hardeeville City Council meetings when action affecting the city’s operations requires a vote is expected by elected officials.

Ironically, a motion to decide whether there are one or two meetings a month failed in June because there were not enough voting members of council present. Mayor Pro Tem Michael Sweeney was out of town and missed the meeting.

City Council has discussed changing the meeting schedule since January, but no action has been taken.

City Council members are required to attend monthly meetings to discuss issues and take action on city items.

Sweeney was elected last year and has missed one additional meeting in March, which was a special council meeting.

Scott Ready, the newest member of City Council, has missed three of the 12 meetings so far in 2013 — one in March, April and July.

Ready, who has a full-time job, said he only misses council meetings when his job requires him to travel.

“Attendance is of utmost important. I wouldn’t have ran for office if it didn’t think I could be an informed representative,” Ready said. “I schedule any vacation or family events around council meetings and city events. The only time I would have conflict is if it is with my work.”

One City Council member, Sal Arzillo, has perfect attendance.

“Formal meetings are the only chance we have to vote on an issue and the only opportunity to receive feedback from the community and I don’t want to miss it,” Arzillo said. “Some of our meetings changed because there was a lack of quorum.”

There are valid reasons for missing meetings.

Council member Sherry Carroll missed a May meeting because there was a death in her family. Mayor Bronco Bostick and City Manager Bob Nanni have also missed one meeting each because they attended city-related conferences out of town.

Showing up is important

City Manager Bob Nanni said there is an efficiency of city business when all are in attendance. Nanni often sets the agenda items for the meetings with input from City Council.

“As city manager, you don’t want to be put in the position where you delay an agenda item because you want input from everyone,” Nanni said. “If the city manager has to manipulate an agenda due to attendance then he can get stuck between a rock and hard place, because council will ask why it was changed. Almost in every community, there are working people on the council and sometimes it’s hard to make a meeting; but it’s a council’s role to govern themselves when it comes to attendance.”

Carroll said it is important to attend every meeting because it is the council’s job to represent the residents.

“It’s an obligation you make when you’re elected,” Carroll said. “We have workshops to familiarize ourselves with the topic and if action needs to be taken, we put that on a formal council meeting so the public can have input. I’m not sure how you could keep up if you missed the meetings.”

Ready is a solutions engineer-faculty advocate for Blackboard, an Internet-based application which allows instructors to put class materials on the internet. When he’s forced to miss a meeting, Ready said he relies on Nanni to recap the items on the agenda.

“If I’m absent, I catch up with Bob Nanni when I return and I speak with my fellow council members to fully understand the minutes from the meeting,” Ready said. “I’ve also asked Mr. Nanni to announce at the meetings I’ve missed why I’m not there. People who elected me should know where I am.”

Nanni said when council members miss a meeting, they still receive all of the information given at the meeting and they’re welcome to schedule a meeting with him to discuss the items.

Mayor Bostick is not concerned if council members are missing meetings because of work.

“Council meetings are always important. That’s why we are elected officials because it’s our job,” Bostick said. “It’s very important to attend, but at same time whenever a council member gets caught up in their work life and can’t, that’s alright. I think my council represents the city very well.”

Setting a schedule

City Council discussed changing the schedule to have one formal meeting a month and the option of having one workshop which then could be changed to a formal meeting if necessary. Council has made no decision.

Arzillo is concerned with only one meeting, issues won’t be handled in a timely fashion.

“We need to have two sometimes even three meetings because when an issue comes up but we aren’t scheduled to meet for another month, it’s delayed and the public is left wondering,” Arzillo said. “Transparency is needed and we can’t have that with just one meeting.”

Five of the 12 meetings since January were changed from the regularly-scheduled first and third Thursdays to a Tuesday, Wednesday and even two Friday meetings. Arzillo said it was to accommodate attendance.

Hardeeville City Council meetings have been held on the first and third Thursdays of the month for several years.

Carroll agrees two meetings are important for transparency.

“When you don’t meet but once a month, you lose touch with not only the public, but also your fellow council members,” Carroll said. “The public has the right to know what is going on that’s why we also televise our meetings, so people can watch in case they can’t attend.”

Sweeney said only one meeting is needed because most don’t last more than 30 to 45 minutes.

“I think one formal meeting is fine then have as many workshops as needed,” Sweeney said. “We’re spending money to televise these meetings that only last half an hour. I think it would be more cost effective to only have one meeting.”

Ready said he would like to have more informal meetings so he can talk one-on-one with the residents.

“I am not as concerned at the number of meetings, but I’m more concerned what takes place. We must have at least a workshop once per month because that’s where we’re able to discuss issues,” Ready said. “Many don’t understand we have very strict guidelines we have to follow when we’re in the City Council meetings. The public can give input during the comments portion, but we can’t respond or have dialogue with them during the meeting.”